On second thought he could have come up with a better plan. They had been taken to an office and handcuffed to pipes. One of the guards was standing nearby holding Kiam and he had been staring the guard down.
"Why don't you just come out and say it? FOTO activists." Halpen said.
"If that's what Friends Of The Ood are trying to prove, then yes." He replied turning his attention to Halpen as the guard lowered his eyes to the ground.
"The Ood were nothing without us, just animals roaming around on the ice."
"That's because you can't hear them."
"They welcomed it. It's not as if they put up a fight."
"You idiot. They're born with their brains in their hands. Don't you see, that makes them peaceful. They've got to be, because a creature like that would have to trust anyone it meets."
"Oh, nice one." He said proudly.
"Thank you." She replied.
"The system's worked for two hundred years. All we've got is a rogue batch. But the infection is about to be sterilised. Mister Kess. How do we stand?"
"You're going to gas them?." He asked in disbelief.
"Kill the livestock. The classic foot and mouth solution from the olden days. Still works."
"What's happening?"
"Everything you wanted, Doctor. No doubt there'll be a full police investigation once this place has been sterilized, so I can't risk a bullet to the head. I'll leave you to the mercies of the Ood."
"But Mister Halpen, there's something else, isn't there? Something we haven't seen."
"What do you mean?"
"A creature couldn't survive with a separate forebrain and hind brain, they'd be at war with themselves. There's got to be something else, a third element, am I right?"
"And again, so clever."
"But it's got to be connected to the red eye. What is it?" He had to know and grew angry at Halpen's answer
"It won't exist for very much longer. Enjoy your Ood." He gestures to the guards and they turn to leave. He turns his glaze back to the one holding Kiam. He sets Kiam down and leaves the room in a hurry with the others closing the door behind him. Kiam runs over to him and gestures that he wants up.
"Well, do something. You're the one with all the tricks. You must have met Houdini." Donna says
She was right, but he wasn't going to tell her that. Instead he struggled with them "These are really good handcuffs." He said finally.
"Oh well, I'm glad of that. I mean, at least we've got quality."
The door opens and three ood with red eyes enter.
"Kiam get behind me," he says, thankfully the toddler listens and gets behind his legs.
"Doctor, Donna, friends." He calls out repeatedly at the same time Donna keeps saying "The circle must be broken."
The ood stop with the transmitter inches from his forehead.
"Doctor. Donna. Friends."
"Yes. That's us. Friends. Oh, yes." The ood release them and he turns and picks up Kiam and runs out of the door after Haplin.
He keeps running through the factor complex. He was getting annoyed. "I don't know where it is. I don't know where they've gone."
"What are we looking for?"
"It might be underground, like some sort of cave, or a cavern, or." his rambling is cut off by an explosion near by. He uses his coat to cover Kiam as the smoke over takes them. Swearing to himself that next time he would go somewhere safe. As the smoke clears he sees an ood standing in front of them.
They follow the ood to a door and he sonics the door controls. He ignores the fact that Halpen is there and walks over to the railing and looks down.
"The Ood Brain. Now it all makes sense, That's the missing link. The third element, binding them together. Forebrain, hind brain, and this, the telepathic center. It's a shared mind, connecting all the Ood in song."
"Cargo. I can always go into cargo. I've got the rockets, I've got the sheds. Smaller business. Much more manageable, without livestock." Halpen says.
"You're going to kill it?" Donna ask
"They found that thing centuries ago beneath the Northern Glacier."
"Those pylons." He says indicating the blue electrical currents.
"In a circle. The circle must be broken. Damping the telepathic field. Stopping the Ood from connecting for two hundred years."
"And you, Ood Sigma, you brought them here. I expected better." Halpen says.
"My place is at your side, sir." Sigma replies.
"Still subservient. Good Ood."
"If that barrier thing's in place, how come the Ood started breaking out?"
"Maybe it's taken centuries to adapt. The subconscious reaching out?"
Halpen pulls out a gun and points it at them. He shifts Kiam far onto his side and turns his body slightly, trying to keep him out of the way of the gun. "Can't say I've ever shot anyone before. Can't say I'm going to like it. But er, it's not exactly a normal day, is it? Still."
"Would you like a drink, sir?" Sigma ask
"I think hair loss is the least of my problems right now, thanks."
Sigma stands in front of him and Kiam. "Please have a drink, sir."
"If, if you're going to stand in their way, I'll shoot you too."
"Please have a drink, sir."
"Have, have you poisoned me?"
"Natural Ood must never kill, sir."
"What is that stuff?" He says suddenly curious.
"Ood graft suspended in a biological compound, sir." Sigma replies.
"What the hell does that mean?"
"Oh, dear."
"Tell me!" He watches the man peel away some of his hair. He felt a cold anger at the man who had imprisoned the ood and pulled a gun on his son.
"Funny thing, the subconscious." He said coldly. "Takes all sorts of shapes. Came out in the red eye as revenge, came out in the rabid Ood as anger, and then there was patience. All that intelligence and mercy, focused on Ood Sigma. How's the hair loss, Mister Halpen?"
He grins at Halpen as more hair comes away in his hand. "What have you done?" Halpen ask.
"Oh, they've been preparing you for a very long time. And now you're standing next to the Ood Brain, Mister Halpen, can you hear it? Listen."
"What have you? I'm not." Halpen drops the gun finally and reaches for his head. He watches as the skin peels off and tentacles come out of his mouth.
"They, they turned him into an Ood?" Donna asks sounding horrified.
"Yep." He says a little to happy.
Donna gives him a concerned look. "He's an ood."
He tries to keep the happiness out of his voices as he replies to her. "I noticed." He winces as Halpin sneezes and a small brain lands in his hands.
"He has become Oodkind, and we will take care of him."
"It's weird, being with you. I can't tell what's right and what's wrong any more."
"It's better that way. People who know for certain tend to be like Mister Halpen. And now, Sigma, would you allow me the honor?"
"It is yours, Doctor."
He goes to the controls and starts pressing buttons deactivating the current surrounding the brain. "Oh, yes! Stifled for two hundred years, but not any more. The circle is broken. The Ood can sing."
"I can hear it!" Donna says in amazement.
-DW-
He is standing outside the Tardis with Donna. Kiam was standing next to him holding on to his pants leg. He looks at ood Sigma.
"The message has gone out. That song resonated across the galaxies. Everyone heard it. Everyone knows. The rockets are bringing them back. The Ood are coming home."
"We thank you, Doctor Donna, friends of Oodkind. And what of you now? Will you stay? There is room in the song for you."
"Oh, I've, I've sort of got a song of my own, thanks."
"I think your song must end soon."
He frowns. "Meaning?"
"Every song must end."
"Yeah." He wasn't ready for his song to end. He still had so much more he wanted to do. He continues to frown as he turns to Donna "Er, what about you? You still want to go home?"
To his relief "No. Definitely not."
"Then we'll be off." He opens the door to the Tardis and Kiam runs in ahead of them.
"Take this song with you." Ood sigma says.
"We will."
"Always." He says
"And know this, Doctor Donna. You will never be forgotten. Our children will sing of the Doctor Donna, and our children's children, and the wind and the ice and the snow will carry your names forever."
He follows Donna inside and walks to the Console sending the Tardis back into the vortex.
"Your song must end soon," The words kept going through his head. He stares down at the controls.
"Doctor," He hears Donna say. He snaps his head up and looks at her.
"Yes"
"You really are a spaceman, I've been calling you for five minutes."
"Sorry," He says sheepishly. "You have my full attention."
"Dinner," She says and smiling holds out a pear to him.